A quick test of cognitive speed: preliminary screening criteria for Arabic-speaking adults, ages 40 to 80 years.

A Quick Test of Cognitive Speed (AQT) color, form, and color-form scales were administered to 90 educated (5-22 years of education) and 45 uneducated (0-2 years of education) healthy, Arabic-speaking adults. Lognormal (In) transformations of time measures (sec.) were used for statistical analyses. There were statistically significant mean differences for the color-form processing-speed measures between middle-aged (ages 40-50) and older (ages 51-80) educated adults and between educated and uneducated adults (ages 40-78). The study developed preliminary criterion cut-off times for color-form naming for screening educated and uneducated Arabic-speaking adults. The normal, slower-than-normal, and atypical/pathological performance ranges were characterized with frequency distributions and standard deviations. Age and education are factors that must be considered in stratifying samples in future studies to develop valid and reliable criteria for cognitive screening of Arabic speakers with the AQT.